Professional, Polite, Prepared to Kill

Glenn Beck and Sen. Domenici on Gas Tax Cuts

Below is the transcript of Glenn Beck’s interview with Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). Senator Dominici hits on some very good points regarding the fuel situation (from CNN.com). It’s not “big oil” that is our enemy, it is liberal Democrats and environmentalist whackos….

BECK: Well, if you`ve been paying any attention to the news over the last week, you probably heard something about a gas tax holiday. But in some cases, the gift of lifting that gas tax comes along with something they like to call a windfall profits tax, a tax on excess profits made by the greedy oil companies. Oh, they`re twisting their moustaches in their office right now.

Sounds pretty good, doesn`t it? Not so much. Everything you ever wanted to know about windfall profits — I don`t happen to know all that much — but we`ll make it interesting in tonight`s “Real Story,” coming up.

All three presidential candidates now continue to weigh in on the idea of the gas tax holiday for the summer. John McCain is in favor of it. Hillary Clinton has jumped on board, calling it a “real and immediate solution.” Barack Obama disagrees, saying it would only save the average American a few bucks a week and what`s that, really?

You know, maybe an elitist like Barack Obama doesn`t really care about a few extra bucks in his pocket, but I`ll take it. I mean, people who live in the real America, you know, we`ll take anything we can get.

What none of the candidates, however, will say is that the gas tax holiday is a red herring. Why are we arguing about this? It might feel like relief in the short term, but it doesn`t address any of the real problems. And that problem is, we need more oil. Supply is low, demand is high. And that`s why prices are up. And it ain`t going away, Jack.

That`s why we also need to find whatever oil we can in this country. We have tons of it. No area should be off limits: not ANWR, not any place. It`s as though America is a cancer patient. And we`ve got three doctors standing there. And one says, “You know what? We need to give him Tylenol.” “No, no, Extra Strength Tylenol.” And the third wants to do nothing.

When will someone in the room say, “Maybe we should try chemo, not pain management but a cure.”

Senator Pete Domenici is the Republican senator from New Mexico.

How are you, Senator?

SEN. PETE DOMENICI (R), NEW MEXICO: I`m very fine. Glad to be on, so we can talk a little bit about reality. Have a little reality check.

BECK: Thank you.

When is someone going to address the actual problem that — I`m sorry — but we need to go for the coal that we have in the mountains. We need to go coal liquefaction. Is that a right — is that the right word?

DOMENICI: Yes, it is.

BECK: We need to go — we need to go into ANWR. We need to go on our shores.

DOMENICI: Look, I`m so glad to hear somebody on the public airwaves that understands the problem. We have an excellent energy bill that we passed three years ago. But we couldn`t get production items in it, because we wanted to do it by bipartisan.

And let`s be honest about it, the production items are disapproved and disavowed by Democrats because of — I don`t know. It`s environmental reasons and/or of late, you`re talking about global warming. But the interesting thing is if you don`t produce your own, you`re still causing those kind of problems, and it`s just dependence on moneys going overseas to somebody else.

BECK: Senator, I can`t thank you enough. You know, Bill Clinton he – – he was the one who signed into law rendition. And we won`t torture anybody, but we have no problem flying, you know, a G-4 over to some other country, grab somebody, and then drop him off to Saudi Arabia.

DOMENICI: Right.

BECK: It`s the same stuff we`re doing with oil. We say, “Oh, we want to get off of oil.” Well, we`re not getting off of oil.

DOMENICI: No, sir.

BECK: We are the slave to countries that want to kill us.

DOMENICI: Well, I want to — I want to tell you so you`ll get it from somebody who`s been working on it. I want to tell you six things right off that are on the production side that this great country ought to do. And actually I don`t believe those who supply us with oil, they must just look at us and say what kind of idiots are they?

BECK: We`re suicidal. Give me the — give me the six things. We`ve got about a minute and a half.

DOMENICI: One, coal. We ought to use coal where we can. And in South Africa, they are producing, they`re turning coal to liquid. And that means they`ve got diesel fuel and other kind of fuels. And we could do that.

The environmental argument is ludicrous, because at least you get neutral results, and you might get better results.

BECK: Right. OK. Two.

DOMENICI: Two, 2,000 acres out of 19 million acres in the Arctic wilderness is the only size of the footprint that you would use with modern technology to produce at least 1 million barrels a day from Alaska. I think it would end up being more like two, but right now we`ll take their one million barrels a day.

BECK: We wouldn`t be in this situation if Bill Clinton had…

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: … 1995. We would have it today.

DOMENICI: We`d have it today. And then they could say whether it makes any sense.

It would send a kind of signal, even though it`s only a million barrels a day, that America wants to do something. That`s two.

There are tons of both natural gas and crude oil on the coastal plains of the United States, on all the offshore lands around us. We now know how to drill deep. We know how to deep diagonally. And we know how to build platforms that won`t leak.

BECK: Senator…

DOMENICI: So you could do that, and you could have billions in the treasury from the royalty payments. And you would send more than a signal. You`d be producing oil within four to five years from America`s own offshore oil that`s there that belongs to us.

BECK: Senator, I have to run. I`m up against a break.

DOMENICI: OK.

BECK: But I sure appreciate it. You keep fighting the fight, sir.

DOMENICI: You got it.

BECK: Somebody in Washington has got to stop with the red herrings and actually work on the problem. Thank you very much.

DOMENICI: Thank you. Nice to be with you.

BECK: You bet.

Now, where am I wrong, America? Tax breaks and alternative fuels, they`re great. But we need energy now until we find those things. It`s time to tap American soil anywhere we can. Tap our own resources. Agree or disagree? Go to CNN.com/Glenn right now and cast your vote.

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